Diane Fine

Diane Fine

Crayons and colouring books were
once my treasured companions.
Luckily for my parents they were the
packaged babysitters of my
early childhood. I became
adept at neatly and evenly
colouring within the bold, black
outlines of cartoon characters.
What a sense of accomplishment!

In grade three, I painted my own
version of a goofy giraffe.Suddenly
I was more than dexterous;
I might actually have some talent!
My parents then sent me
for private art lessons.
Mrs. Kushmario was a beautifully
coiffed,cultured European lady.
Making a mess in her elegant
apartment was not on the curriculum.
She chose the subject matter and
the medium for me. I would work
for hours slavishly copying what was
put before me.
Then, my instructor would erase or
draw over all evidence of my involvement.
I would sign it and bring it
home to my parents who marveled
at how well I was progressing.

To this day, there are still
many of those framed pieces
of Greek busts, Japanese prints
and National Geographic llamas
hanging on their walls.

Years of visual art exploration
have been an attempt to free
myself from those early days
and to unleash my own
imagination - always venturing
into unknown territory.

In my work for the past decade,
I have been instinctively drawn to
manipulating shapes and colours
to create stirring images. Mixed
media collage is my chosen
medium for this exploration.
The collage technique serves
to free my imagination from the
confines of replication. The
process is resolved as pieces
are added to the puzzle.